ABOUT
Boston Indicators is the research center at the Boston Foundation, working to advance a thriving Greater Boston for all residents across all neighborhoods. We do this by analyzing key indicators of well-being and by researching promising ideas for making our region more prosperous, equitable and just. To ensure that our work informs active efforts to improve our region, we work in deep partnership with community groups, civic leaders and Greater Boston’s civic data community to produce special reports and host public convenings.
Team
Luc Schuster
Peter Ciurczak
Kelly Harrington
Aja Kennedy
Lucas Munson
History of Boston Indicators
Initially created in 2000 through a partnership with the City of Boston and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, Boston Indicators (or the Boston Indicators Project, as it was originally known) has been a primary resource for data-driven analysis in Greater Boston. Boston Indicators analyzes big trends in Boston and its neighborhoods in a regional, national and global context. In addition to our research initiatives, we convene civic leaders to foster public discourse.
For our first 15 years, the Indicators Framework—a curated online catalogue of 350 measures of well-being in the Boston area—was the backbone of our work. Based on the contributions of hundreds of local thought leaders, the Framework articulated 70 shared civic goals and reported on change across 10 sectors: Civic Vitality, Cultural Life and the Arts, the Economy, Education, the Environment, Health, Housing, Public Safety, Technology, and Transportation. The Framework was used in a real-time way to measure our progress as a city and inform important civic conversations.
Boston Indicators is a founding partner of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), a learning network, coordinated by the Urban Institute, of independent organizations in 30 cities that share a mission to ensure all communities have access to data and the skills to use information to advance equity and well-being across neighborhoods.
In April 2020, Boston Indicators launched the COVID Community Data Lab (CCDL) with the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, a two-year research project to capture and analyze the wide-ranging social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Greater Boston. Featuring a repository of real-time, traditional and nontraditional data sources and short research briefs, the CCDL was a community resource to policymakers, advocates and the general public. The Data Lab’s 2021 “Seizing the Moment” series convened a range of community voices to propose concrete ideas for an equitable and just recovery.
In addition to conducting research that is responsive to active efforts to improve our communities, Boston Indicators continues to produce larger, high-profile public reports chronicling Boston’s accomplishments and highlighting core challenges. Major reports include: